How old is Noah when the flood begins in the Book of Genesis?

In Genesis, Noah is 600 years old when the flood begins.

Genesis 7:6 gives Noah’s age as 600 years when the waters of the flood come upon the earth. This follows the earlier genealogy and family information in Genesis, which identifies Noah as the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The age is part of the narrative’s distinctive chronology of the patriarchs.

The number is not Noah’s age at the time he first receives the building command. Genesis presents the construction instructions before the flood account, while the explicit age marker appears when the flood starts. That distinction explains why different passages can be associated with different moments in the story.

Noah is also described as living for 950 years, according to Genesis 9:29. That later figure is sometimes mistakenly supplied for the flood’s beginning, but it refers to his total lifespan in the biblical account, not his age when entering the Ark.